We have *no idea* what life on other planets might be like. True, and we can only make educated guesses. The universe is an immense system where a near-infinite amount of chances are taken every single moment. All these chances are governed by the factors unique to this universe. It's breathtaking to think that at this very instant the whole universe changes, everywhere. If there are another sentient beings they are living the same moment as we are. i like to think that the possible other beings are not that far away, for we share the same instant.
Life grows within the limits set by space and for example on the lower-g planets I could imagine the flora and fauna to have more freedom of movement etc.. Life itself is a structure of space, which is governed by universal constants. What i'm interested in is how life gains consciousness of what the space is (constructing its own reality) and how it learns to modify space to its purposes (to please yourself with a cup of tea or move around for example). Our brains vibrate in tune with the Earth (Schumann resonance). The brainwaves correlate strongly with these vibrations of the magnetosphere. The vibrations are unique to Earth. A being/structure on another planet would grow within different vibration patterns...
There exists a wonderful collection of elecromagnetic waves made audible called "NASA space probe recordings" and "Symphonies of the Planets". The latter has five volumes total. They raised the frequencies of the voyager space craft recordings of the interplanetary magnetic and electric fields to audible range and released the resulting darkish ambient soundscapes.
Eavesdropper box could act as a wireless router between laptops... there might be situations when setting up a regular wireless network is not desirable or possible.. The screen could be set to emit such signals that they would be interpreted as deliberate messages. A radio transmitter could be build to imitate laptops' signal to transmit data and images directly to some receiving device...
The school institutions in Finland are actively pushing firefox because it has the reputation of being secure. (Ministry of Justice changed to openoffice since 2007 btw). The IT at the place I study replaces IE with firefox in all the machines they install (hundreds of machines). Firefox penetration in schools of all levels, universities etc places is nearly 100 percent. I have seen only a few machines with IE. IE is nearly non existant. The public internet booths and libraries use Firefox. If not firefox, they use netscape or opera. The Fox is a sympathetic figure... The only public skewing the statistics are the ones who are not IT aware enough to change their browser, or like IE for some reason. The people who use IE because they like it are in clear minority.
I have mused myself with an idea, that there would be identifier tag in every sample (44100/second etc) that is created, and each time a sample goes through an output device (hardware or software) it would be noted. Information would be sent to some central server, and this information used to distribute royalties to the members of this system. In this way you could be for example able to freely sample anything, and when you use that sample information about its creator would be automatically retained within your own creation as meta data. One song might include dozens of artists, and when someone samples from it, his song might include a few times more... When such a creation passes through an internet radio server for example, all the participants would get their share in proportion to the amount of samples / original creator. This system could also be expanded to visual creations, if the medium is intelligent enough. The problem is that all the devices and software would need to be modified, and the funding source is bit of a mystery...
i wonder when they come up with a game you would actually play while sleeping.. the helmet would be perfect. or attached controllers to your limbs, if you are active.. eye movement tracker. a massively multiplayer haphazard game, which would probably be awesomely funny to watch.
i can imagine the tabs being damaging... they are competing about the global tab share. you see, when a microsoft user brings about 10 tabs, it raises the total number of tabs in the world, and is 10 tabs less for other browsers. the ratio of tabs is relative to a sum of money the software companies get paid by the government for being efficient and space saving. what you all should do now is to open 100 tabs in your firefoxes, or more preferably in your local bar, so we cab really take this issue on to the next level.
I'd very much like to see browsers provide an option to get rid of having all content inside their own windows... Minimal and resizable (scalable?) frames or a clutter free fullscreen mode would be much more neater. Browsing would happen by a separate freely placeable configurable toolbox, which could be called when needed. To write an address a text input thingie could be called and hidden if not constantly needed. The overall feel would be much more open and free. I personally hardly ever use any other menus than Bookmarks, and the fullscreen mode doesn't minimize in the same nicely minimal fashion.
In Finland education is highly standardized.. there are not many options after secondary school (at age of 16), either it's vocational school or high school or some combination of both. High school lasts 2-4 years depending on your abilities and choices. You are free to choose from a palette of studies, of which most are mandatory in the end. There might have been few multiple choice tests in the primary school level, but all tests are basically of essay type or applicative from the very beginning (age 7). Public kindergardens are practically free, or at least ridiculously cheap. Compulsory education ends about after secondary school. High schoolers are tested twice a year (matriculation examination), and you are free to test any portion of your studies after you have completed the credits for it. Most do it all at once in spring, and some do the rest in autumn. The tests are quite extensive, and last for weeks (a couple of subjects a week). Besides of matriculation examination regular tests for the subjects are held. The standard curriculum needs to be satisfied. Great achievements in the matriculation examination may automatically grant you a place in some university or institute of technology, which otherwise organize entrance examinations. The education is free all the way, and there are only few private schools, like Rudolf Steiner-schools. There aren't much different choices in the end.
The state (ministry of education) keeps and controls high standards for the basic knowledge level of an individual, and partly regulates the number and availability of study positions of different fields in universities and such. Lately, I believe, a lot has been invested in biosciences, because they believe it will in the future benefit the aging society, create ground for innovations and new financial opportunities. In the 80s and nineties the thing was computer sciences and engineering. Regulation happens in co-operation with financial advisors.
I'm personally finishing my second bachelor's degree at the moment (four years of studies each), and am 8000 euros in debt because of a student loan i needed. The repayment starts next year, and it will still take some after that before the installments reach the maximum, if i remember correctly.
This is the chance for the humanity. Mars should be terraformed and life introduced. Global authority is to be created to control the process and earth population, and to ensure the project's continuity. Rules about intervening with the process are to be formed and enforced. Visits for altering the dna and taking samples should be permitted.
Media corporations are to be contacted and TV shows created. Eventually, after multitude of sponsored and freak essays, life on Mars would achieve consciousness as scripted. At certain point, after much occasional hilarity and entertainment, would few humans descent from the heavens of Mars as its True Gods (tm). The arrival would have been made to be anticipated by careful placement of ancient artifacts. The candidates are selected by the authority from a pool of lottery winners and applicants. The candidates go through a careful selection, where their personality traits are charted and public opinion asked.
After some time the Martian societies likely collapse and civil wars ensue - prime material for the sequels and next generations. The military might of the media authority keeps protesters at bay and events grounded...
There exists another interesting invention around about the same principles. This one however uses solar wind, not magnetic fields, is steerable and able to work itself against the solar wind by adjusting the polarity and charge of the individual wires. They are apparently doing practical research on this right now. A short english description can be found at http://www.electric-sailing.fi/index.html
I wonder how many songs the RIAA members sell annually ? Billions ?? Pressing 100'000 copies of a 15 track CD equals 1,5 million songs. 1000 songs equal about 68 15 track CDs, which I guess is easily covered in less than thousandth of a second of all the album sales.. notwithstanding the publishing catalogues put into compilations around the world all year long..
I believe the effect you are referring to in the second example is called comb filtering.. the mechanisms of hearing are also connected with the sense of balance. Amazingly delicate system. I can't help thinking the group of people clicking and slowly walking around eyes closed in the world now however..
Explorers are not tourists, and tourists are not explorers. Your inability to differentiate between them says much. Exploration has many meanings, and I understand the way you are using it. The word exploration also applies to finding out more about oneself. The space tourists long for experiences and discoveries, and of course this is not equivalent to the scientific programs and exploration, but exploration nonetheless.
Certainly - but that doesn't make the tourists that round out the rest of the passenger manifest researchers and explorers. I have not for once said the tourists are equivalent to professional researches or explorers, but the tourists would en masse explore the new limits and setting of the human experience they are provided. It will surely lack professionalism, but be a rewarding play. I totally understand your point.
This is one of those fictional/metaphysical bits - where you create a nonstandard useage of a word and use it as the basis of an argument. I guess you mean the word 'exploration', which can be translated for example as 'to traverse or range over (a region, area, etc.) for the purpose of discovery' or 'To search into or travel in for the purpose of discovery'. It might be I have been misguided by the millions of people that have used the word before me to describe something as exploration that isn't. It's a selling point for sure, but has the tint of the truth too.
Evidence of cluelessness - inability to differentiate between fantasy, metaphysical handwaving, and reality. It isn't 'metaphysics' to say that provided by new set of options one adapts to those options, plays with them and learns to live by and use them. Space provides the sense of weightlessness or constant falling as it is, new ways to use your body and new sights seen by your own eyes. I wouldn't be disgusted by this, and would feel myself restricted on earth, longing for the freedom i had experienced. The metaphysical bits i have presented come from the Explorers themselves.
I don't see how NASA for example could have done things faster. Maybe you could point out few cases where the exploration has stalled because of 'metaphysical masturbation' ?
I say you have no clue because you cannot reliably differentiate between the (very) few facts and (very) many opinions you have posted. I do agree the space tourism industry will not be sending their own probes around the solar system any time soon, but your premise of their non-contribution in exploration is slightly questionable. The NASA's vision for space exploration is to take humans back to the moon, mars and beyond. This doesn't differ from the vision of the private space industry, who will be the ones taking people there in masses. Researches and explorers will surely find a way on a such private ship one day (along with governmental option of course) as they are finding their way on commercial airliners today.
What might my fictional points be then ? I'd be glad if you pointed them out for me, you being more aware of the situation. I see the timescale may be off, but the actions and consequences are not.
I began by talking about the current private players being the takers of the first steps of private exploration, not as something equivalent to NASA or other space agency. I wasn't talking about scientific, but human exploration and finding about ourselves, in a comforting reply to the parent about the options some able individuals are developing. Space tourism will provide a huge new area of human experience to play with, which will lead to new insights about the universe we live in. I guess you would be happier if I said it wouldn't ?
Space tourism will increase interest in sciences and open new markets, new opportunities.. I wrote an essay on space tourism recently and am excited about the possibilities it offers. I have to admit i'm a bit of an idealist myself too.. Space is going to be commercialized relatively soon, and in the end it will undeniably benefit the research and exploration too by providing tools like you said, and giving people new experiences and dreams to fulfill. You are saying all the sci-fi literature is to be frowned upon, because it slows down space exploration by providing unrealistic views and metaphysics... clever. Idealistic and unrealistic metaphysics fuels the imagination, crosses boundaries and provides new ways of thinking. The astronauts and cosmonauts were the first ones to talk about the enlightening experience of being in space and seeing the earth down below, so i think it's clear where the hardcore substance for these trek/hippy ideals you talk about comes from - from the governmental agencies themselves.
NASA and private sector are elements that support each other. The tourism will turn public's attention to space and thus provide positive imagery for NASA and space research and exploration generally. We are now living the moment of a technological paradigm shift, or ephemeralization as Fuller would state it. You are saying I have no clue about exploration but provide no grounds for your argument whereas I stated a fact you could have researched. It's obvious who here is more 'scientific' and into 'exploration'.
NASA is for example interested in using Rutan's vehicles in their exploration, as well as the structures Bigelow is building... The passengers are for sure in for an experience, an exploration on themselves and the space.. It's the stepstone of the human experience in space. there's going to be a huge mental change in the humanity when space tourism and commercial exploitation kicks in, just imagine seeing the huge scale of space for only a few minutes. It's a totally new experience without flags and politics. in 20-30 years there will be services available in orbit to dock with and spend time. Governmental and private exploration will go hand in hand, most of the people behind private companies come from or have previus/on-going financial connections with NASA.
It might not be NASA who puts the habitats in orbit but Bigelow Aerospace... They envision to have their own complete habitat up by 2015, and NASA actually is interested to use them too (Bigelow licensed the tech..) Virgin Galactic is the forerunner in sub-orbital flights beginning 2008-2009 whereas Space Adventures will begin trips around moon not long after that.. the people behind aforementioned companies are highly idealistic in bringing humanity to space. We are truly living the first steps of private space exploration at the moment (and it will be cheap eventually....)
Slashdot Mirror
Life grows within the limits set by space and for example on the lower-g planets I could imagine the flora and fauna to have more freedom of movement etc.. Life itself is a structure of space, which is governed by universal constants. What i'm interested in is how life gains consciousness of what the space is (constructing its own reality) and how it learns to modify space to its purposes (to please yourself with a cup of tea or move around for example). Our brains vibrate in tune with the Earth (Schumann resonance). The brainwaves correlate strongly with these vibrations of the magnetosphere. The vibrations are unique to Earth. A being/structure on another planet would grow within different vibration patterns...
There exists a wonderful collection of elecromagnetic waves made audible called "NASA space probe recordings" and "Symphonies of the Planets". The latter has five volumes total. They raised the frequencies of the voyager space craft recordings of the interplanetary magnetic and electric fields to audible range and released the resulting darkish ambient soundscapes.
Eavesdropper box could act as a wireless router between laptops... there might be situations when setting up a regular wireless network is not desirable or possible.. The screen could be set to emit such signals that they would be interpreted as deliberate messages. A radio transmitter could be build to imitate laptops' signal to transmit data and images directly to some receiving device...
The school institutions in Finland are actively pushing firefox because it has the reputation of being secure. (Ministry of Justice changed to openoffice since 2007 btw). The IT at the place I study replaces IE with firefox in all the machines they install (hundreds of machines). Firefox penetration in schools of all levels, universities etc places is nearly 100 percent. I have seen only a few machines with IE. IE is nearly non existant. The public internet booths and libraries use Firefox. If not firefox, they use netscape or opera. The Fox is a sympathetic figure... The only public skewing the statistics are the ones who are not IT aware enough to change their browser, or like IE for some reason. The people who use IE because they like it are in clear minority.
I have mused myself with an idea, that there would be identifier tag in every sample (44100/second etc) that is created, and each time a sample goes through an output device (hardware or software) it would be noted. Information would be sent to some central server, and this information used to distribute royalties to the members of this system. In this way you could be for example able to freely sample anything, and when you use that sample information about its creator would be automatically retained within your own creation as meta data. One song might include dozens of artists, and when someone samples from it, his song might include a few times more... When such a creation passes through an internet radio server for example, all the participants would get their share in proportion to the amount of samples / original creator. This system could also be expanded to visual creations, if the medium is intelligent enough. The problem is that all the devices and software would need to be modified, and the funding source is bit of a mystery...
i bet he/she never thought ending up on slashdot.
at that speed they would probably be able to add a few barrel roll junctions instead of usual ones.
i wonder when they come up with a game you would actually play while sleeping.. the helmet would be perfect. or attached controllers to your limbs, if you are active.. eye movement tracker. a massively multiplayer haphazard game, which would probably be awesomely funny to watch.
i can imagine the tabs being damaging... they are competing about the global tab share. you see, when a microsoft user brings about 10 tabs, it raises the total number of tabs in the world, and is 10 tabs less for other browsers. the ratio of tabs is relative to a sum of money the software companies get paid by the government for being efficient and space saving. what you all should do now is to open 100 tabs in your firefoxes, or more preferably in your local bar, so we cab really take this issue on to the next level.
"Oddone and Aymar will speak again at the end of the week."
I'd very much like to see browsers provide an option to get rid of having all content inside their own windows... Minimal and resizable (scalable?) frames or a clutter free fullscreen mode would be much more neater. Browsing would happen by a separate freely placeable configurable toolbox, which could be called when needed. To write an address a text input thingie could be called and hidden if not constantly needed. The overall feel would be much more open and free. I personally hardly ever use any other menus than Bookmarks, and the fullscreen mode doesn't minimize in the same nicely minimal fashion.
it would be complete if it smelled like crap.
In Finland education is highly standardized.. there are not many options after secondary school (at age of 16), either it's vocational school or high school or some combination of both. High school lasts 2-4 years depending on your abilities and choices. You are free to choose from a palette of studies, of which most are mandatory in the end. There might have been few multiple choice tests in the primary school level, but all tests are basically of essay type or applicative from the very beginning (age 7). Public kindergardens are practically free, or at least ridiculously cheap. Compulsory education ends about after secondary school. High schoolers are tested twice a year (matriculation examination), and you are free to test any portion of your studies after you have completed the credits for it. Most do it all at once in spring, and some do the rest in autumn. The tests are quite extensive, and last for weeks (a couple of subjects a week). Besides of matriculation examination regular tests for the subjects are held. The standard curriculum needs to be satisfied. Great achievements in the matriculation examination may automatically grant you a place in some university or institute of technology, which otherwise organize entrance examinations. The education is free all the way, and there are only few private schools, like Rudolf Steiner-schools. There aren't much different choices in the end.
The state (ministry of education) keeps and controls high standards for the basic knowledge level of an individual, and partly regulates the number and availability of study positions of different fields in universities and such. Lately, I believe, a lot has been invested in biosciences, because they believe it will in the future benefit the aging society, create ground for innovations and new financial opportunities. In the 80s and nineties the thing was computer sciences and engineering. Regulation happens in co-operation with financial advisors.
I'm personally finishing my second bachelor's degree at the moment (four years of studies each), and am 8000 euros in debt because of a student loan i needed. The repayment starts next year, and it will still take some after that before the installments reach the maximum, if i remember correctly.
This is the chance for the humanity. Mars should be terraformed and life introduced. Global authority is to be created to control the process and earth population, and to ensure the project's continuity. Rules about intervening with the process are to be formed and enforced. Visits for altering the dna and taking samples should be permitted.
Media corporations are to be contacted and TV shows created. Eventually, after multitude of sponsored and freak essays, life on Mars would achieve consciousness as scripted. At certain point, after much occasional hilarity and entertainment, would few humans descent from the heavens of Mars as its True Gods (tm). The arrival would have been made to be anticipated by careful placement of ancient artifacts. The candidates are selected by the authority from a pool of lottery winners and applicants. The candidates go through a careful selection, where their personality traits are charted and public opinion asked.
After some time the Martian societies likely collapse and civil wars ensue - prime material for the sequels and next generations. The military might of the media authority keeps protesters at bay and events grounded...
There exists another interesting invention around about the same principles. This one however uses solar wind, not magnetic fields, is steerable and able to work itself against the solar wind by adjusting the polarity and charge of the individual wires. They are apparently doing practical research on this right now. A short english description can be found at http://www.electric-sailing.fi/index.html
The great roman empire has set it's limb on China, it seems.
That's the outcome of politics.
1000/15 is 66,67 = 67 pieces...
I wonder how many songs the RIAA members sell annually ? Billions ?? Pressing 100'000 copies of a 15 track CD equals 1,5 million songs. 1000 songs equal about 68 15 track CDs, which I guess is easily covered in less than thousandth of a second of all the album sales.. notwithstanding the publishing catalogues put into compilations around the world all year long..
I believe the effect you are referring to in the second example is called comb filtering.. the mechanisms of hearing are also connected with the sense of balance. Amazingly delicate system. I can't help thinking the group of people clicking and slowly walking around eyes closed in the world now however..
Certainly - but that doesn't make the tourists that round out the rest of the passenger manifest researchers and explorers. I have not for once said the tourists are equivalent to professional researches or explorers, but the tourists would en masse explore the new limits and setting of the human experience they are provided. It will surely lack professionalism, but be a rewarding play. I totally understand your point.
This is one of those fictional/metaphysical bits - where you create a nonstandard useage of a word and use it as the basis of an argument. I guess you mean the word 'exploration', which can be translated for example as 'to traverse or range over (a region, area, etc.) for the purpose of discovery' or 'To search into or travel in for the purpose of discovery'. It might be I have been misguided by the millions of people that have used the word before me to describe something as exploration that isn't. It's a selling point for sure, but has the tint of the truth too.
Evidence of cluelessness - inability to differentiate between fantasy, metaphysical handwaving, and reality. It isn't 'metaphysics' to say that provided by new set of options one adapts to those options, plays with them and learns to live by and use them. Space provides the sense of weightlessness or constant falling as it is, new ways to use your body and new sights seen by your own eyes. I wouldn't be disgusted by this, and would feel myself restricted on earth, longing for the freedom i had experienced. The metaphysical bits i have presented come from the Explorers themselves.
I don't see how NASA for example could have done things faster. Maybe you could point out few cases where the exploration has stalled because of 'metaphysical masturbation' ?
What might my fictional points be then ? I'd be glad if you pointed them out for me, you being more aware of the situation. I see the timescale may be off, but the actions and consequences are not.
I began by talking about the current private players being the takers of the first steps of private exploration, not as something equivalent to NASA or other space agency. I wasn't talking about scientific, but human exploration and finding about ourselves, in a comforting reply to the parent about the options some able individuals are developing. Space tourism will provide a huge new area of human experience to play with, which will lead to new insights about the universe we live in. I guess you would be happier if I said it wouldn't ?
Space tourism will increase interest in sciences and open new markets, new opportunities.. I wrote an essay on space tourism recently and am excited about the possibilities it offers. I have to admit i'm a bit of an idealist myself too.. Space is going to be commercialized relatively soon, and in the end it will undeniably benefit the research and exploration too by providing tools like you said, and giving people new experiences and dreams to fulfill. You are saying all the sci-fi literature is to be frowned upon, because it slows down space exploration by providing unrealistic views and metaphysics... clever. Idealistic and unrealistic metaphysics fuels the imagination, crosses boundaries and provides new ways of thinking. The astronauts and cosmonauts were the first ones to talk about the enlightening experience of being in space and seeing the earth down below, so i think it's clear where the hardcore substance for these trek/hippy ideals you talk about comes from - from the governmental agencies themselves.
NASA and private sector are elements that support each other. The tourism will turn public's attention to space and thus provide positive imagery for NASA and space research and exploration generally. We are now living the moment of a technological paradigm shift, or ephemeralization as Fuller would state it. You are saying I have no clue about exploration but provide no grounds for your argument whereas I stated a fact you could have researched. It's obvious who here is more 'scientific' and into 'exploration'.
NASA is for example interested in using Rutan's vehicles in their exploration, as well as the structures Bigelow is building... The passengers are for sure in for an experience, an exploration on themselves and the space.. It's the stepstone of the human experience in space. there's going to be a huge mental change in the humanity when space tourism and commercial exploitation kicks in, just imagine seeing the huge scale of space for only a few minutes. It's a totally new experience without flags and politics. in 20-30 years there will be services available in orbit to dock with and spend time. Governmental and private exploration will go hand in hand, most of the people behind private companies come from or have previus/on-going financial connections with NASA.
It might not be NASA who puts the habitats in orbit but Bigelow Aerospace... They envision to have their own complete habitat up by 2015, and NASA actually is interested to use them too (Bigelow licensed the tech..) Virgin Galactic is the forerunner in sub-orbital flights beginning 2008-2009 whereas Space Adventures will begin trips around moon not long after that.. the people behind aforementioned companies are highly idealistic in bringing humanity to space. We are truly living the first steps of private space exploration at the moment (and it will be cheap eventually....)